Unspent levies to be used for wool projects

Beef + Lamb New Zealand will continue to fund wool-related activities for another few years, using leftover levy money.

The organisation, formerly Meat and Wool New Zealand, no longer has a mandate to contribute to the wool sector, following the farmers' vote last year to stop paying levies on the wool they produce.

But Beef + Lamb still has almost $3 million of unspent wool levies, and chief operating officer Cros Spooner says it's proposing to use most of that to continue wool-related market access work and information and analysis for another four years.

Mr Spooner says Beef + Lamb New Zealand is also proposing to contribute $130,000 towards shearing sports and wool classing activities for a further two years.

The rest of the levy money - almost $900,000 - will be used to set up a fund to support specific wool projects.

Mr Spooner says the new wool industry umbrella group is backing the proposals, but Beef and Lamb is also seeking farmer feed-back before it confirms the recommendations in November.